


Clandestine

by LotharWinchester



Series: Friend's OC and other fictions [1]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, Implied Relationships, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Original Character(s), raider OC, somewhat cannon complaint
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 12:07:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14670762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LotharWinchester/pseuds/LotharWinchester
Summary: Mangus, former Bio Science and current SRB retainer,  wants to find out more about the current Institute director other than what he's gathered over the years. where better to get it form than straight from a main source?





	Clandestine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tess1978](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tess1978/gifts).



> Special thank you to Tess for letting me write a fic with her OC/Sole
> 
>  
> 
> disclaimer: i don't won fallout, just my oc.

Mangus kept his eyes on his modified combat knife as X6 pressed the garage door button of the Red Rocket station.  The stress of managing a group of coursers in the Commonwealth had become his job alone. Many synths and SRB humans hadn't returned from replacement and scouting missions to local settlements which had severely impacted. Father's trust in the Synth Retention Bureau.

 

X6, X9-27, and Z2-47  had come with him this time. Most of them had orders to capture rouge synths while he and X6 had to meet with Kellogg in the coming days.  

 

Mangus was known amongst the coursers to let them run on a loose leash compared to other handlers. He was also known to be ruthless if there were any mistakes on their assignments.  The last courser to fuck up a retention had been returned, tortured, and recalled in front if the entire SRB and every single courser attended. They were ordered to watch until Mangus was done with him.  

 

“There has been activity near the vault.” X6’s monotone voice didn't reflect his concern.  Mangus sighed as he sheathed his knife and sat back to take a hit of Jet. 

 

“We'll wait.” he grunted before taking a hit from the canister. “The others?”

 

“Still retaining, no mission diversions or delays from last report.”

 

Mangus motioned for X6 to sit beside him,albeit stiffly and begrudgingly. X6 did not like to remember what usually happened when they were alone.  

 

Coursers were not made to feel. That included arousal, pleasure, and release. 

 

He was relieved when Mangus said nothing when X6 interlocked their fingers.  

“Father wants to observe her journey.” his words had their desired effect. Mangus stopped trying to bring his hand further than X6’s wrist.  Bringing up the Institute director always killed the mood between them. 

 

Mangus’ face stayed impassive with a herculean effort.  X6 didn't know the history between Mangus’ reassignment from Bioscience to the SRB. The courser knew,however, most of Mangus’  sexual history. The fact Kellogg was his first with everything always gave him pause. The cybernetic enhanced human had allowed Mangus in his bed when he was nineteen. 

 

Same sex relationships in the Institute were not forbidden, but uncommon.  The one hundred plus year age difference between them seemed to be the main stickling point for the last director to break them apart.  

 

From then on, Mangus had been with more than half the Institute and several of the surface dwellers.  X6 recalled the first, Magnolia in Goodneighbor after several successful retentions. The small merc followed by mayor Hancock.  X6 had forced himself to lose track after that. 

“I'm not sure why this particular dweller is important to the Director. There are several other vaults within this area alone.”

X6 watched as Mangus took another hit of Jet.  He could tell the human was hiding something from him.  He had seen Mangus talking with Brian Virgil in hushed tones and Father had given him an even shorter leash than Kellogg when he traveled outside the Institute. 

“I will check the perimeter.” X6 stood and held his hand out to his handler.  

“I'll go scout  Sanctuary.” Mangus stretched and slid his pistol holster over his shoulders before sliding his leather jacket over his shoulders.  The man was as lethal as a courser and, like many times before, X6 wondered why the Institute wasted Mangus’ talents on surveillance missions and meetings with Kellogg. 

* * *

 

Mangus lit a cigarette as he patrolled the perimeter of Sanctuary Hills.  The files and holotapes he'd found on the director had changed his perspective on his own future. 

Kellogg had found one of the files while updating his cybernetics. The other files came from the man's knowledge and experience of taking Shaun from Vault 111.  

The fact the director's DNA was the base for all of the Synth program had him questioning the place he'd been born into. The Institute hadn't felt like home in over a decade, since he'd been forbidden to be with Kellogg, if he was an honest man anymore.  

X6’s rejection earlier had him in a darker mood.  He knew why Shaun was putting him on missions he was overqualified for.  Part of the files Mangus had pilfered from old Institute records had the basic records on almost all of the vault occupants. 

Except for Shaun's family.

Whether Kellogg conveniently left out information or if the Institute had buried it deep,  Mangus hadn't a clue. 

So when a girl stumbled through the ruins of Sanctuary Hills, he followed close behind.  

The view was somewhat shapely and would easily be spotted as a dweller because of it.  Mangus guessed her to be eighteen but he'd been wrong before. Her blonde hair was in need of a touch up around the roots, something he only knew because he had his increasing amounts of grey in his beard dyed when he had downtime in the Institute.  A small glint of light reflected off of her nose and he grunted in surprise. It was rare to see anyone with a piercing outside of Goodneighbor or the Institute's occasional dare. He lulled his tounge piercing back and forth. 

She also knew nothing about the wasteland. 

The way she held herself with her security baton close to her side, her poor stance, and the brightness of her vault suit made her an even easier target.  

But he held back.  

Mangus grunted as he shuffled through the encrypted files on his Pip-boy. Codsworth was the name of the Mr. Handy he'd gotten more information from when he'd done his initial sweep of the area.  He'd made sure to wipe memories of their encounter from his memory banks. 

_ Return to the Institute when retentions are completed.  _

Mangus tapped the message out as he circled back towards the main entrance to Sanctuary. 

_ Do you need assistance?  _  X6 compiled the current status if the courser's objectives for him. 

_ No,  and do not return to our current base. Potentially compromised.  _

Mangus gathered everything he could from the Red Rocket and made his way back towards Sanctuary.  It was hard to find the least threatening stance in his arsenal due to the fact it had been a long time where he needed someone to fully trust him.  

The Shepard was new. 

The dog growled lowly at the steps of one of the pre war houses.   Mangus recognized it as the Director's supposedly original home. 

“Hello there!” Codsworth's British accent cut through the early evening hour as his thrusts guided him towards the doorway behind the dog.  

“Hello. “ Mangus adjusted his tone as he knelt down to let the dog sniff him.  It took a minute but the dog backed down. “Been a while since I've seen anyone friendly.”  

“Who's there?”  

God, it had been a while since he'd heard a non synthetic voice that young.   

“Miss Gemma,  we have a visitor.” Codsworth swirled to greet his owner.  “A mister... “

“Mangus.” he chuckled lowly,  “Ain't had anyone call me ‘Mr.’ in a long time.”

He kept his hands away from his visible guns and handed the dog a small bit of jerky.  It gobbled it down faster than the girl.. Gemma, seemed to have liked judging by the look on her face.  

“I got more.” Mangus split some of the jerky with the dog and bit on a small piece.  “It's good to be wary out here.”

Mangus swallowed the rough jerky down and motioned behind the girl.  “I'll trade you some food and a look out shift for being able to stay by that fire.” 

He could tell that she wanted nothing to do with him.  

_ Smart girl.  _

Just as she was about to tell him off,  her stomach growled loudly. Codsworth passed her to drop wood on the fire.  

“I will be here, Miss.” He supplied as Mangus passed through the door frame. He ducked so he wouldn't wouldn't hit his head on the top portion of the frame and made sure not to touch Gemma in any way.  

He groaned as he sat by the warm fire and pulled out several cans of food from his pockets.  A can of purified water was rolled to Gemma, who still stood in the doorway, and another was opened to split between him and the dog.   The Shepard lapped happily at it until it was gone. 

“I used to be like you. Fresh faced from some underground hell hole.” Mangus shifted to watch the door as Gemma sat by the dog and accepted the food Mangus passed over. He motioned to his pack where the blue of a vault suit stared back at them both.  Mangus knew the old jumpsuit he'd found would come in handy at some point. “How long?”

“A few hours.” Gemma's voice sounded hollow,  borderline shell shocked from what he assumed was left in the vault and everything afterwards. “Everything's…  _ different _ .”

Mangus nodded as he got up to  dig around the kitchen for a pan or a pot.  Gemma's eyes followed him as he eventually found a small pan in one of the high cupboards.  

“You don't need me to tell you it's dangerous out there.” he nodded towards one of the broken windows as he sat down to cook more.  Gemma's empty can clinked against the floor as she put it down and eyed the pan. “Even with the dog and the Mr. Handy. “ 

He cooked in relative silence. Codsworth's humming and the Commonwealth's daily noises filtered through the damaged building.  Gemma's eyes kept on his movements for a while before she stared openly at his frame and face. 

“You could have taken what I had.” 

Mangus grunted and rolled his shoulders.  “What would it have accomplished? I've been coming here for a while now when I can't find a place to stay and you just happened to be here.” it wasn't entirely true.  

He pulled a cigar out of one of his pockets and motioned towards Gemma.  She shook her head and he shrugged. His brown hair rustled gently with the breeze that filtered through the damaged windows.  

Mangus exhaled the smoke out of the window above him.   Codsworth swirled around to pick up their empty cans and put them in what remained of the kitchen sink.  

He spent most of his time on the surface with synths, but when he could,  Mangus often spent time in various popular settlements keeping up on his skills. Most of it was reading body language and sometimes pickpocketing and lockpicking. 

Right now, Mangus could tell Gemma had relaxed a little. He also noted that she would most likely not open up all that much to him and that was part of her personality. She's probably lie to him now that the shell shock was starting to wear off. 

He gave the girl credit.  She was the definition of out of place or out of time but still had enough common sense to not trust him.  

Mangus dropped his cigar on the front step and put it out with the heel of his boot.  He rummaged through his pack and dripped some supplies by Gemma's side and walked further into the house without a word.  

He could hear her rummaging through the spare bed roll and set of durable clothing.  Her distrust could be felt through the thin walls. 

Mangus wondered if he had shown a little too much of his hand.  Whoever she was, Gemma was important enough to the director to risk Kellogg, who had been such an irreplaceable asset to the Institute for years.   

All of the rooms had been cleared out except for the furthest room on the right.  Just looking in, he could tell it was a nursery at one point in time. 

_ Was the kid related to her? Had she lost a kid?  _  Or was it just a coincidence that she left the room in the same state it had been since the bombs?

Mangus clogged the sink and dumped a can of water in to wash his face.  He shrugged out of his jacket and holsters to strip off his shirt and splashed some of the remaining water against his furred chest.  The one thing he always missed from the Institute and established settlements was a warm shower. 

Codsworth floated into the room as he finished redressing.  “miss Gemma wanted me to inform you that she is decent.”

Mangus nodded and shoved past the Mr. Handy.  His bed roll was a basic sleeping bag with a straw pillow and he couldn't wait to sleep. It would be his last chance to get a basic judgment of Gemma.  


End file.
